Friday, June 1, 2012

A Victorian Celebration Master Post.

Welcome to the Master Post for A Victorian Celebration-a two month event focused on the writers and books of that time period! Back in March, I announced sign-ups for the event, and was blown away by the response. I have been anxious to get underway! Thank you all for participating (and you can still sign up!).

I have a lot of things planned for this month-including giveaways, guest posts, and lots of Victorian reading. I'm going to take a moment to explain the posting/linking procedure, and then I'll lay out the rules for winning prizes, etc.

At the bottom of this post is a "Mister Linky" widget. Whenever you review a book or write a post related to the event, please link it on this master post. Please include the title or subject of whatever your post is AND your blog name in the "Name" section of the link. It should look something like: Master Post (A Literary Odyssey). This will ensure that all the links are in a similar format, and so others know what your post is about when they click on it. I will make sure that the button on the right side of my blog will take you to this post, and there will also be a link at the very top of my blog. Please make sure to only link posts here!

So, every time that you link a post, you will be eligible to win prizes. I have some prizes spaced out over the course of the event. Sometimes links from the past week will be the only thing to count towards entries, sometimes I'll pick an author and pull a winner from there, you get the idea. The only way to be entered for those prizes is to make sure you are linked up here with any posts related to the event.

There will also be some separate giveaways. For any giveaway sponsored by yours truly, you have to be a participant in the event (to make it fair!). Make sure to read the rules on those giveaway posts carefully and enter if you are interested! I also have a few guest posts where that writer will be doing a separate giveaway on their blog. They may have separate rules, so make sure to read carefully. :)

I think that's it! I hope you are as excited as I am! Start reading those Victorians people!

50 comments:

  1. Help, I can't see the widget! JavaScript is enabled. Is anyone else having this problem??

    I started Framley Parsonage. :)

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  2. I can't see the Mister Linky either - eek!

    I'm reading Agnes Grey - it's not too long, so I'm hoping to finish it within a few days. :)

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    1. I might read Agnes next week.... :) Good first choice!

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    2. I keep reading that Tenant is her best, and I do own both but I'm gravitating towards shorter works at the moment.

      Still have to go through my shelves to see what else I might come up with for these two months (this is a great time, as I'm also doing the Andrew Smith event - so I'll have an equal amount of great "easy" reading with great classic reading!

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  3. Sorry guys! I'm at school so I can't fix the widget until I get home this afternoon, but I will! Dumb Technology!

    Allie

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  4. I've posted my review of Our Mutual Friend! I'll check back and sign up with Mr. Linky when it's updated.

    Agnes Grey is on my short list too!

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    1. Mister Linky is working now! :)

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    2. Karen-

      Adam brought up a good point below. I know you'll understand (not fair to count books read before the event for giveaways). :)

      Happy Reading!!!

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  5. I'm starting Villette this weekend. I can't wait to dive in!

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  6. Question: Aren't the only books counted those that we actually read in the months of June & July? Or are reviews posted in June & July for books read earlier also counting?

    (I'm asking because I can't imagine that someone read all of Our Mutual Friend in one day... but I could be wrong).

    I didn't see this spelled out anywhere, so can you clarify? Maybe I just missed it... Thanks! :)

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    1. Great question.

      Yes, only books read during the event will count towards any giveaways pulled based on the links participants post. I know that Karen just recently finished Our Mutual Friend and was waiting to post to kick off the event, and I'm sure she knows that it won't count for giveaway purposes.

      :)

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    2. Oh, don't count it toward the giveaways, I just thought it would be more fun to include it to kick off the Victorian Celebration. If you need to, you can take it off Mr. Linky. I don't expect to win anything anyway, since I already won one of your Victorian giveaways!

      But wouldn't it be awesome if I could read an entire work by Dickens in one day? :-)

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  7. Just finishing up my spring class work so I can jump in to Little Dorrit. Leading book discussions at the library on The Moonstone and Sherlock Holmes. I hope to get another one done during this time too.

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    1. Love Sherlock Holmes. I read through the whole collection 2 summers ago and was blown away by how consistently good the stories were!

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  8. Can't wait to start! In my shortlist: Bleak house, The Tenant, Wurthering heights (a good dose of Brontes is always beneficial) and I'll try Elliot's the Lifted Veil, a novella, just to see the difference with her more known works ...

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    1. It just occurred to me that it would be really cool if I read one each by Trollope, Dickens, Hardy, Eliot, and a Bronte. Probably won't happen though, I have too many other unread Victorians on the TBR shelves to limit myself to the big five.

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    2. I haven't tried any of Eliot's shorter works either, but I'd like to!

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  9. I forgot to ask, are neo-Victorians acceptable -- that is, newer books set in the Victorian period? Also, what about movies or TV adaptations?

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  10. Posted my first review, on Kate Chopin's beautiful and sensuous novel The Awakening - a nice contrast to English Victorian sexual sensibilities. You did say that American books within the same time period were acceptable? Now it's on to Stevenson and Gaskell for me!

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    1. Yep! That's fine!

      Stevenson is so much fun! I loved Treasure Island when I read it last summer!

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  11. I'm in and I've posted my summer selections. Great way to celebrate the Charles Dickens bicentennial.

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  12. I'm excited! I've posted what I'll be reading.

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    1. Awesome! I love seeing everyone's reading lists!

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  13. Allie, I must say I'm really enjoying this! I'm checking in with this post daily to see what everyone else is reading, it's great!

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  14. I've added my review of Of Human Bondage, since it's a neo-Victorian. It was a nice surprised when I realized I could add it to the Celebration! It's so wonderful, long but worth it. And a fast read.

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  15. Posted my thoughts on The Autobiography of Mark Twain. I had to do a general response-type approach to this one, because my traditional format just doesn't apply to non-fiction. The quotes section is long, too... probably could have doubled or tripled it, really, considering how many dog-eared pages and underlined passages I ended up with!

    Now, I'm off to start reading Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell - Book #3! I might get through all 6 on my Victorian Celebration reading list, after all!

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  16. I've added the link to my Victorian Giveaway! I hope you'll enter it too!

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  17. I've just added the link to my Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde review! It joins ones for She and News from Nowhere; next up is Green Mansions...

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  18. I've added a link to my posting about the winner of my Victorian giveaway! It was so fun, I'm looking forward to the next one.

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  19. Added my link for Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell - now onto Germinal by Emile Zola. Only 40 pages in but loving it already, somehow. Next up on my list is probably The Warden by Anthony Trollope (so I'm off to read Allie's review of that right now!)

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  20. Added a link to my review of Stevenson's Treasure Island. I don't discuss plot much; instead, I talk about cultural references, passivity as antithetical to coming-of-age, expectations of children as audience, and standard narrative devices in modern children's books.

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  21. I shared about a poetry collection Anne Shirley fans might enjoy, but I didn't actually read all 700 pages this week, so it doesn't count. I'm just sharing. :) http://aliteraryodyssey.blogspot.com/2012/06/victorian-celebration-master-post.html

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  22. I didn't realize I was supposed to link up my reading plans post (which was also linked at sign-up) so I added it. I'm still working on Middlemarch and am thinking of joining a Anna Karenina read-a-long for July. Yikes!

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  23. Linked-up a giveaway contest I'm hosting just for Victorian Celebration participants! It's active beginning today (6/27) and will end next Wednesday (7/3). Good luck, everyone!

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  24. I read both Wuthering Heights and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, will post my link to Alice soon :)

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  25. My review of Germinal is linked-up! Can you delete #118? I accidentally pasted the wrong link (it goes direct to my blog instead of to the actual post). #119 is correct. :)

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  26. Enjoying some extra reading time while relaxing out in the country!
    On my 3rd Victorian read while here, The Quiet Neighbourhood by Geo MacDonald
    and have just added 2 reviews to the linky ~
    #s 145 Anne of Green Gables, always a treat!
    + #146 a first time read of Edith Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure Seekers

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  27. Only just discovered this forum so hope I'm not too late..... I'm choosing North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell as my first read.....

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  28. posted 5th read "Recipes for an English Tea"
    thx for the motivation to add this challenge to my reading list..:)

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  29. I've been reading steadily, but posting sporadically. I just put up three reviews in order to get all of my Victorian readings in place before the end of the month. That makes, I think, a total of five.

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  30. Allie - just finished my wrap-up post - want to thank you again for this, thoroughly enjoyed this project, thank you so much for organising it! :D

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  31. I read 7. I apologize for posting most of them today on the linky.
    Thank you.
    Annette of Impressions In Ink.

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  32. I only ended up reading two, but I feel accomplished that I finished Middlemarch. Thank you for hosting. I hope you do it again next year. Perhaps I'll do better. =O)

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  33. Thank you for an interesting reading challenge.Reviewing my journal, I was quite heavy into the Pre-Raphaelite period. Mostly biographies, memoirs, etc. of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett MIllais, John Ruskin... "The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels" by Jane Soskice. I saw a special exhibit at the New York City Library. Thanks

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